A Researcher's Perspective on Current Events

September 28, 2010

On a recent Harris Poll Americans were asked what type of Supreme Court justice they would most prefer. In response, half of U.S. adults said someone who keeps their personal opinions of “right” and “wrong” to themselves, and makes decisions strictly based on the letter of the law and the Constitution (51%). While it’s nice to hear that Americans believe so strongly in the Constitution, this response also somewhat amused me.

The U.S. Constitution is widely regarded as one of the most famous and enduring documents in United States, and possibly world, history. Written in 1787 and updated with the first ten amendments, commonly known as the Bill of Rights, in 1791, the Constitution has informed U.S. law, the rights of American citizens, and the creation of other governments around the world for more than 200 years. The reason that the Constitution has proven to be not only successful, but also enduring is as simple as it was forward-thinking.

The fathers of the U.S. Constitution were insightful enough to know that they didn’t have all the answers. They understood that in order to create a document that could be widely applied and lasting, it would have to be flexible, where the spirit is apparent, but the specifics are left up to interpretation.

It is this fixed need for interpretation that makes the Constitution applicable today, which simultaneously makes the answer of 51% of American adults, interesting and possibly amusing. Luckily, the Constitution also provides for freedom of speech, or the open exchange of ideas, whereby compromise and consensus might be reached. That is, at least, according to my interpretation.

August 30, 2010

When I first read Adweek’s survey question: “Given a choice of the following, which one would you most want to be?”, with the given choices being richer, thinner, smarter or younger, I immediately thought: brilliant.

Immediately after that, I thought: is this a trick question?

I assumed, if you were smarter, maybe you could invent something, get a better job, or in some other way figure out how to become richer. If you were younger, maybe you could do the same – make different decisions earlier in life, go into a different field of work, etc, which could also result in making you richer. As a younger person, you could take school more seriously than you might have, which may not actually make you smarter, but it could certainly make you more well educated. In the same vein, if you were younger maybe you would also be thinner, before bad habits have fully taken hold. Or, if you were richer you could hire a personal trainer and a chef, which one would hope could make you thinner. As these rationales go on, the question becomes: does one answer trump the others?

Ultimately it’s a fun question to ponder and you could play it however you like. But, at the end of the day the one thing I decided that I most would want, is for “happier” to have been included in the options. As much as some people have financial stress that is burdensome, or are extremely dissatisfied with their weight or appearance, in my mind if you are happy—who cares? In the actual survey 43% of Americans, the largest percentage seen, said that they would choose to be richer. But, I wonder how the results would look if happier was also an option.

Does happiness trump all, or would people rationalize that money can buy that, too?

August 23, 2010

The Harris Poll's Alienation Index has stayed nearly the same (actually it’s gone down one point) from last year … meaning we, as Americans, essentially feel just as “disaffected,” “isolated,” and even “hostile”… according to my Microsoft Word thesaurus… as we did last year.

That’s the bad news.

Now, here’s the good news…We appear to feel significantly less alienated today than we have in the previous two decades, and we feel less alienated now under the tutelage of Barack Obama than under Clinton, Bush (the father), Reagan, Carter and Ford.

But hold up, before we start popping the champagne of peace, love and understanding, there’s also some confusing news…Our level of alienation is about the same today as it was under George W? And we feel less alienated now than when we did when the economy was booming? When we weren’t at war? When we all had jobs? So go figure…

When we parse apart the statements that make up the Index (separating those that are more political from those that are more social or economic in nature), we can provide a little more detail to the story.

In terms of agreement (which means higher alienation), Americans today are more likely to feel that:

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer = ↑ 2

You’re left out of things going on around you = ↑ 2

And less likely to feel that:

The people running the country don’t really care what happens to you = ↓ 3

What you think doesn’t count very much anymore = ↓ 4

Most people with power try to take advantage of people like yourself = ↓ 4

Maybe this Index is somewhat emotional and not altogether rational. But there is some evidence that Americans today are more likely to feel that their voice is being heard, even if the economy is tanking and their world is spinning…Score a small 1 for Barack Obama.

August 16, 2010

Turns out that being squeaky clean (at least as far as the public knows) now officially means NOTHING in the way of sports fanship. Last month, we released the Harris Poll’s list of favorite sports stars… and as far as I can tell, only 2 out of the top 8 have stayed out of the spotlight for off-the-court/field hijinx (is that what we are calling it that these days?). Our favorites list includes reality-show proportions of addiction, infidelity, gambling, and arrests, just to name a few of the exploits covered.

Sure, we don’t love our sports stars quite as much when they’ve been behaving badly…Like for example, Tiger Woods no longer has a lock on first place, he now has to share it with what-scandal?-I-have-my-fifth-ring Kobe Bryant…And yes it’s true that Lebron James fell 3 spots to #6 after he took us on a tour of his ego this summer.

But this list rings like a roll call of who’s most-wanted for indecent and egomaniacal behavior rather than (or as well as) a list of our most beloved sports icons. As a mom and a sports fan, my list would be SO different… but then of course, none of mine have ever won a ring. What’s the lesson here, kids?

P.S. Just to Lebron, only one athlete in the top 8 has never won a ring in his sport… I’ll let you do the math. So with all respect, maybe your move to Miami was necessary but I’m not sure how patiently we are going to hold onto your spot.

July 30, 2010

Our Public Affairs and Policy research division was honored to work on a landmark study for the Kessler Foundation and National Organization on Disability to help mark the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The study results were featured on the Today Show and we are delighted to share the full study and this clip with you. Enjoy! And cheers, to twenty years.

July 19, 2010

While surfing various Tweets today (it's my job, I promise), I came across this video which makes use of Harris data from a study we conducted for CareerBuilder back in June 2009. The study sought to answer a couple of different employment-related questions:

Do employers look up potential job candidates using social networking sites? (The answer is a resounding YES, YES, YES ... and the percentage is only growing.)

How can a potential employee's social profile make or break them in terms of scoring a job?

Check out this video and find out if you are committing any of the cardinal sins of social networking -- chances are, your profile isn't as squeaky clean as employers would like!

(As an aside -- the video also includes soothing music along with photos of cute animals and babies, so if you aren't into learning how to give your Facebook a facelift, you'll still really enjoy this afternoon treat.)

In the meantime, I'm off to delete a few pictures.

P.S. Many thanks to YouTube user, edtechsteve, for posting this video.

But times are tough, people! And baseball is very much a business. So in that sense, it not how much you win or lose, it’s how much money you can generate … er… it’s how much you are “loved.”

Thanks to CBS Sports’ 2010 MLB Team Pay Rankings, I was able to do a little hypothesizing, as to which teams are a “good value” based on their pay ranking AND where they fall in our annual Harris Poll “Favorite Baseball Teams” study.

The Question: Do the pay rankings for MLB teams synch up with how much they are loved? Are some teams overpaid, yet underloved? Are some teams overloved and underpaid? And whch teams have it all figured out?

Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you, my "Best Values in the MLB" chart...which teams are home runs in terms of value and which ones strike out?

Team

Favorite Ranking

Pay Ranking 2010

Home Run or Strike?*

New York Yankees

1

1

-

Boston Red Sox

2

2

-

Atlanta Braves

3

15

Home Run

Philadelphia Phillies

4

4

-

Chicago Cubs

5

3

Strike

New York Mets

6

5

Strike

San Francisco Giants

7

10

Home Run

Los Angeles Dodgers

8

12

Home Run

Minnesota Twins

9

11

Home Run

St. Louis Cardinals

10

13

Home Run

Milwaukee Brewers

11

18

Home Run

Detroit Tiger

12

6

Strike

Seattle Mariners

12

9

Strike

Texas Rangers

12

27

Home Run

Chicago White Sox

15

7

Strike

Cincinnati Reds

16

19

Home Run

Cleveland Indians

17

24

Home Run

Arizona Diamondbacks

18

25

Home Run

Kansas City Royals

19

20

Home Run

Colorado Rockies

20

16

Strike

Baltimore Orioles

20

17

Strike

Tampa Bay Rays

22

21

Strike

Oakland Athletics

23

28

Home Run

San Diego Padres

23

29

Home Run

Los Angeles Angels

25

8

Strike

Pittsburgh Pirates

25

30

Home Run

Washington Nationals

27

23

Strike

Houston Astros

28

14

Strike

Florida Marlins

29

26

Strike

Toronto Blue Jays**

30

22

-

**Left the Blue Jays “unjudged”, as we don’t really know where they lie in the “favorite” ranking – this survey was conducted among U.S. adults, so it’s not surprising a Canadian team is at the bottom. Plus, who even knows if their pay ranking was converted from Canadian dollars?

Okay, so I really know nothing about baseball “home runs” or “strike outs,” per se. However, I speculate that teams do NOT become favorites because of their performance. Hence, why the Chicago Cubs are high on the favorite and pay list, while other, more recently "successful" teams still don’t get nearly as much love (think: World Series ’02 Champs, the Los Angeles Angels; World Series ’03 Champs, the Florida Marlins and ’05 Champs, the Chicago White Sox.

As you can see, very few teams have pay that coincides with their popularity… but those who have found an equilibrium tend to be near the very top of both the favorites and pay list (think: Yanks, BoSox, Phillies). The question is – does popularity eventually lead to higher pay? Or, does higher pay ensure more popularity?

July 09, 2010

Last week, Harris Interactive exhibited at the Insight Show, Olympia, London. The Insight Show aims to deliver the perfect discovery platform for new routes to insight and the latest market research solutions. Harris Interactive was delighted to launch and present two of our groundbreaking products – Harris LifePulseand Pathways to Purchasewith Steve Mellor and Kevin Ford presenting on Harris LifePulse, and Pathways to Purchase respectively. Our own Dave Laybourne also co-presented with Ugam on Market Research Outsourcing.

Check out our Harris LifePulse video, including just some of our visitors to our stand who were keen to share their passions with us!

July 07, 2010

Dow Jones Newswires’ Al Lewis discusses a recent Harris Poll which indicates many Americans expect the economy to worsen this year. What do you think - should we be preparing for glimmers of sunshine? Or will we stay stuck in an economic slump?